Tag Archives: Fear

Destroy your Reputation

“Forget safety.

Live where you fear to live.

Destroy your reputation.

Be notorious.”

― Rumi

 

It’s the “skinny branches” of life that really get my heart beating…. the places in life where you take a chance, or purposely take the step that pushes yourself out of your comfort zone.

Don’t you ever get sick of the mundane life you’ve created?  The day to day repetition?  The predictable, the safe, the “normal?”

What do you think you came here to learn? To do?  Is your spirit just aching for you to adventure out of your ordinary life?  When is the last time you signed yourself up for something “different”, “special”…”scary?”

There is so much life to be lived beyond the safety zone.  Just pick one thing to do and then sign yourself up.  Cooking class? Retreat? Vacation?

Declare your love. Come out of the Closet. Write a letter to someone you’ve been meaning to reconnect with….

I’d love to hear what you’ve decided to do….. please share with us in the comments below!

 

Revelation: I AM the SOURCE of LOVE

I am going to make a bold assumption as I write this:

The reason you are here and reading this and somehow touched by The Revelation Project is because you are someone who believes in, honors, or respects the belief that there is a spiritual purpose for our journey here on earth.

Is that too bold?  Well… I don’t know what you believe in, and would never judge your beliefs whether you call “it”-  great spirit, Christ, higher power, God, creator….  it’s all good, I think we are on the same page here.

So – with that said, I am a lover of boiling things down to their “essence.”

How I relate to the world has everything to do with how deeply I understand and then function out of the knowledge that I am not separate, and that each action I take or word I say comes from one of two places… LOVE or FEAR.

I believe that I was born into the world with the “essence” of  LOVE, and that FEAR was something i learned along the way.

If the essence of my being is LOVE  then it’s also helpful to remember that everyone else is of that same essence.

If the two base emotions in this world are love and fear than all that does not originate from love is born as a result of fear.  Sounds obvious, but stay with me, and also read what a course in miracles has to say:

“Love holds no grievances. When I hold a grievance, I am forgetting What I am. I am attacking my Self. Today I am willing to practice recognizing grievances for what they are and handing them over to the Light so that they can be undone. I am willing to focus on this practice today.

Since Love created me like Itself, and Love holds no grievances, judgment is never justified. Any time I judge, it is because I have denied What I am. I have denied my Self. It is only by Self denial that I could believe that it is possible to judge. The bodies eyes were made as instruments of judgment. They show me only differences and I have learned to label these differences. I see a shape defined by differences and I call it a piano or a tree. This instrument, designed to show me differences, was made to make the illusion of separation appear real. This is denial of my Self as Love created me.”

As life gets rolling along it becomes harder and harder to distinguish our “operating system” until we stop and look.  The Revelation Project is a mechanism and tool for taking a look.

At TRP one of the area’s we try to expose and explore is the illusion that as individual women, we are separate, or different.    Yes… we photograph each woman as a way of showing her own unique and inherent beauty, but we also make claim that this is true of each and every woman everywhere and that we are all SISTERS who are unified in this way.  In our blogging of her experience and her story as part of TRP we are also inviting you to see yourself.  We invite you to look into her eyes, and her image, and see yourself.

TRP makes the claim that inside each of us is our ORIGIN and our most powerful essence- LOVE.  We work at exposing the limitations that keep us from it, and that create the illusion that honors fear.  Once we break this barrier-  then all that’s left is love of self. Love of SOURCE.

Once you have truly accessed that love for yourself – can you truly LOVE another and dispel operating from  a place of FEAR or experiencing others from a place of fear.

It’s in this LAND where we can experience the joy of connecting in Love with all that we are and all that IS.   In this place all conflict disappears. Now, what’s possible, is the ability experience another woman as sister.  Should we choose to exercise this knowledge and cultivate that function – than what we do is create MORE.

MORE love can heal the world of it’s infliction:  fear.

It’s the elixer, the remedy, the antidote, and YOU can make all the difference.

We invite you to SEE yourself as the SOURCE of love.  

If you decide you might like to join us and tell your own story, get seen, and transform your community – please drop us a line. We’d love to have you!

 

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Projecting… REEL or REAL?

I love words that really capture the essence of their meaning.  I love the word projecting because I think of a movie camera projecting images on a screen….  The projector is separate from the screen and the reel or “movie” is also it’s own entity.  Three separate things working together to create the experience.

While necessary for film- projecting can be a real issue when it’s done socially- between people.

Projecting can be tricky- because many people do not even know they are doing it, and so once it becomes habitual – it’s a habit that needs to be broken or you’ll be sure to suffer un-necessarily, not to mention those around you who will also surely suffer from being projected upon…

So how do you know you are doing it?

First lets start by recognizing how it takes shape:

We all experience life through our senses ( sight, sound, touch, taste, …. ) which we then translate to our brain through our “emotions.”

Something in life happens… and then we add meaning to that something and it translates in as an emotion- good or bad.

The tricky part is separating fact from fiction….  in order to do that, one first needs to know where fact ends and fiction begins….

A Scenario:   I’ve been waiting all day for my husband to come home so I can show him the new couch that got delivered.  When he gets home he looks at the couch and say’s “it’s great” and walks to the mail table and sighs loudly. Now I’m upset- he’s not giving me the reaction I want, and his sigh is a sure sign that once again, I’ve disappointed him in some way ( just as I used to experience my father as a young girl…) and it means he does not like the couch and now I’m in a foul mood and I continue to weave my “story” of meaning around his actions…….

Fact: My husband came home and said the couch looked nice, and then walked to the mail table and sighed.

Fiction: everything else.

I’ve just “projected” my INTERPRETATION of his actions on him and we are surely in for a fight night.

His experience: He had just come in from a long day and had forgotten that the couch was being delivered. He likes it and strongly feels that as long as his wife likes it- he’s happy with whatever she gets. He walks to the mail table and see’s that there is mail from his former company and sighs loudly in relief… thank god he’s not working there any longer!

I have projected my fears and thoughts on him as if they are true.  My actions are now aligned with my story as if what I am “projecting” and I am living it like it’s “real.”

The HEALTHY thing to do in this case is to *recognize* what’s happening as it’s happening…. and to “check in” with the person you are in the dialog with so one way to deal with it is to say to your spouse….

“Honey, I’m making that sigh mean that you don’t like it… are you unhappy with my choice or are you sighing about something else?”

or

“Your reaction to the couch makes me realize how many “expectations” I was attaching to your arrival home.  I choose hunter green because I knew it was your favorite color and I really want you to love the couch as much as I do….”

Taking a moment to actually explain to your partner ( or anyone you might be talking to) that it’s “triggered” you in some way is a great way to work through fact vs. fiction.  It takes the drama out of the dialog and separates what’s real from what’s been manufactured.

A great clue is that any time you start a sentence with “YOU…” chances are you are going to add your INTERPRETATION to the action and create a Big ol’ story.

Keep the Movie on the REEL and turn that YOU into an “I” …. try beginning your sentence with “I” and own what’s really bugging you… without making the person’s actions responsible for your feelings…  YOUR feelings are what create the story to begin with…

I’d love to hear your additional thoughts or examples of how projecting impacts your life….

 

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10 Ways to Enjoy Life More Right Now

 

If you can’t change a problem, move on.Thou shall not stew.

Stop getting stuck in your story about woulda. coulda. shoulda. and get on with doing what you love to do.

Surround yourself with loving, low-maintenance people who increase your vitality instead of rob it.

Remember that aging is part of the wondrous cycle of life. It is normal and it is what is suppose to happen, just like getting our baby teeth.

Take care of that pesky task that has been hanging over your head for way too long. It won’t take nearly as long as you think it will.

Have an orgasm.

Did I just say that?

Stop worrying about what other people think. It’s your life.

Don’t forget that human’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Acknowledge someone.

Get over your fear. Fear is normal, so embrace it and then you’ll get past it.

Take care of yourself physically, emotionally and mentally. Be your own best friend. It is the foundation for a good long life.

Photo by Jef Bettens, Limburg, Belgium

By Louise of Lines of Beauty.

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Cry Yourself a River

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I’ve always thought that if a movie doesn’t at least bring me to the edge of tears than it usually isn’t worth watching, unless of course, it’s a really good comedy.  Generally I tend to be a bit of a crier, but lately I have hardly shed a tear.

I thought I’d hit menopause and cry myself a river but so far this has happened only a handful of times. Which in one way has been a relief…if you know what I mean.  Still, having a good cry always makes me feel better, whether they are tears of sadness or of joy.

Dr. Christiane Northrup says that “crying is one of the ways in which we rid our bodies of toxins. Crying allows us to move energy around our body, and sometimes to re-channel it, or understand it a different way.”

Crying also helps us to release stress. Suppressed emotions can make us feel depressed and really need to be let go of. Crying is one of the healthiest ways to do this and to keep depression at bay.

Tears lift our mood because they release endorphins, just like exercising, that act as mood elevators and painkillers. That’s why we feel so much better after a good cry.

Crying helps calm us, as does laughter.

To weep… is to make less the depth of grief. – William Shakespeare

By Louise at Lines of Beauty.

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Revelation: You only have to be who you are

There are certainly times in all of our lives when we have to be who we aren’t…for instance when we have to deal with new challenges or step outside the comfort zone of who we have always known ourselves to be.

But in terms of day-to-day living, the older I get, the more I realize that for the most part, we really do only need to be who we are. This is very helpful for me to remember when I wish I was more like someone else- or that I was smarter, or wiser, or better in some way. It is certainly helpful to remember this as we age- as our sight starts to weaken, and our memory loses it’s strength, or when we don’t have as much energy as we use to.

Years ago when my kids were young and life was more hectic, I wrote on a piece of paper “If it’s okay with me, then don’t worry about it.” and put it in my wallet as a reminder to stay on course to my true self. It really helped, and I think it is partly what eventually brought me around to:

You only have to be who you are.

It’s such a relief don’t you think?

 

Written by Louise at Lines of Beauty.

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Revelation: Scared of Myself (Part two)

Fear is a universal emotion.  It can be quite useful for many creatures as it creates caution around things that might seem harmful.  For humans it is our barometer for the “unknown” It is also a vital part of being alive… and it’s a natural human reaction especially as one moves closer to the truth.

It’s amazing to me how often most of my life has been about “keeping busy” or as they say in the South “He just moves to keep from thin-kin”  (they sure are smart over there).

But what about when there is no where to escape? no busy work to do? nothing to hide behind… what then?  I love the fact that most of us can put on a show for a while… but after the show is over… who show’s up? Do we know that person?

My earth shaking revelation as I lay in my bed month after month trying to sleep it all away was that I had absolutely NO relationship with myself other than one of abuse and tyranny.  I truly was my own worst enemy, and although I am not sure when I started taking myself hostage.. I know that it had been going on for a very very long time. Perhaps even since I was a child.  Self love was for fruitcakes, and weirdo’s……

So this weirdo fruitcake found herself standing nose to nose with the object of her contempt…. and had no where to escape. What a gift it is …. the gift of no escape.  When I had no where to go, and nothing to hide behind I was forced to really look at who I had become….

To be continued.